Casino magnate Steve Wynn’s libel lawsuit against the Associated Press for reporting on sexual misconduct allegations against him has been thrown out, the Associated Press itself reported.
Wynn sued the AP earlier this year as iMediaEthics previously reported. The Associated Press’s March 4 story was headlined, “Woman tells police Steve Wynn raped her in ’70s,” and reported, “A woman told police she had a child with casino mogul Steve Wynn after he raped her, while another reported she was forced to resign from a Las Vegas job after she refused to have sex with him.”
This month, the judge, Clark County District Court Judge Ronald Israel, ruled the article accurately reported on police complaints. “Israel sided with the AP position that its reporting on the two police reports was fair and could not have been investigated further at the time because the identity of the women had been blacked out in documents obtained under a public records request, and Las Vegas police refused to provide more details, according to the AP. “InA sworn statement filed in July by Halina Kuta, one alleged victim and a named defendant in the defamation case, contained inconsistencies about dates, names and other things that Kuta said happened to her.”
Kuta is also being sued by Wynn, but the AP noted she stands by her claims, including that she posed for a Pablo Picasso painting painted before she was born.
Wynn’s attorney Lin Wood told iMediaEthics by e-mail that Wynn thinks the court ruling inaccurately and plans to appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.
” The AP article completely omitted any discussion of the delusional details of the alleged childbirth at a service station as described in the police report, including the description of a purple doll in a water bag that she opened with her teeth and blew into until the doll turned pink,” Wynn wrote. ” The AP article also failed to mention that Ms. Kuta claimed to be 27 years of age at the time of the 2018 police report which described a child birth and rape allegedly occurring in the 1970s, almost 20 years before her own birth.””
iMEdiaethics has written to the AP for comment.